Crying and Crying Out
AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144 • PM Psalm 42, 43
Jer. 31:27-34 • Rom. 11:25-36 • John 11:28-44 or 12:37-50
This morning’s Gospel readings offer you a choice:
You can read about Jesus bringing his friend Lazarus back to life…
OR
You can read about the people who just could not believe in Jesus.
(Who picks these passages of scripture? What’s going on here? Are they trying to fool us? Trick us into reading more about Jesus than we can possibly understand on a Saturday in April?
Maybe.)
If you read about Lazarus, you will come across the shortest verse in the Christian scriptures,
“Jesus wept.” –John 11:35
Jesus wept when he stood face to face with a crying friend. She was standing with others who were also crying because someone they all loved had died. It made Jesus cry. Then, through his tears he told his dead friend to come back to life and, by God, he did.
John describes the resurrection of Lazurus as such a crucial event in the public life of Jesus that it led directly to his death in Jerusalem. The religious leaders claimed that “the whole world had gone after him!” (12:19) and “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” (11:48)
Some things never change do they? Some of us believe, and some of us just can’t.
And if you read about the people who couldn’t believe you will find John quoting the prophet Isaiah explaining that’s just how God does things:
The Lord has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and understand with their heart...
That’s a hard word to read and accept: God blinds us and hardens our heart. Why would God do that? What is going on here?
I’d be a fool to give an answer to that. So thank God for the words Jesus cried out for everyone to hear:
Whoever believes in me
believes not in me
but in the One who sent me.
And whoever sees me
Sees the One who sent me.
I have come as light into the world,
so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.
I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them,for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12:44-47)
So, gentle reader, which Gospel story do you choose today? Will you go back and read about Jesus crying in the face of death? Or will you sit with the words cried out by Jesus in the face of disbelief?
The best I could do for an April Fool’s joke is to try and get you to consider both.
Written by Troy Schremmer
Troy works with preschool age children as an enrichment teacher in music and movement. He also sings songs at our public library and volunteers as a teacher-helper in Children’s Sunday School.